Selective Serotonin-Reuptake Inhibitors: Fall From Grace!
When I was in Philly, I came down with a very strange malady I fought to escape, if not to deny all together. It was an ominous, crushing, yet imperceptibly oblique illness that made others conclude that I was lugging around some kind of stupid character flaw. It's as if you look at someone drowning and conclude, "Why, how could he be drowning? Look at all that energy he has! He's just waving at us! Not drowning!"
CFS (M.E.), (and similar immune/brain system disorders), was - and continues to be - looked upon as a manifestation of depression (and anxiety), and not a physical illness. Therefore, antidepressants, almost always SSRIs, are prescribed. This is an easy way for doctors to get rid of these conundrum patients who just seem to complain all the time and never accept responsibility for their own craziness. In fact, when a doctor is found who actually understands that CFS is a real illness, and finally diagnoses the patient legitimately, that patient cannot then go on to petition for disability benefits, primarilly Social Security.
No, a diagnosis of CFS is not enough for that. The patient also has to be diagnosed as having a second illness! And that second illness is usually depression. And that's what I had to do. I had to say I was also severely depressed, in order for the government to conclude I was disabled with CFS. If that makes any sense to you.
But, I was not depressed. I was burnt out, and something was eating my brain. And nobody was listening to me. And I was applying for disability when I didn't want to be disabled, and when people were looking at me like I was a pathetic loser. I was angry.
With depression, it might be imagined that a person's psychic lightbulb dims. That is not what happens with CFS. With CFS, one's lightbulb overheats and gets brighter and brighter and just completely burns out. No psychiatric drugs will bring it back. But, since I was officially depressed, I was told to take SSRIs. So, I know about them. And I have studied them. In fact, I studied them in college, even before I came down with CFS.
But, when CFS was ravishing my being, after college but before I ever got to the point of applying for SS/SSI, and when all I got was scorn and antsy impatience, CFS - I didn't know it was CFS - forced me to leave my job. I ran out of money. I became homeless. I lived in a cave in the middle of Philly, surrounded by hypodermic needles. I lost the use of my legs for a bit. I was literally up shit creek. What the hell was happening to me?!
Despite the handicap, I started gaining the means to at least go to research studies, to make any kind of money I could. I even went to one study, where they took blood samples, including of my immune profile, and I didn't even let them know that under my pant leg, my leg had strangely balloooned up with severe poison ivy. In another study, to which I applied, I was so doped up that, when the female nurse studied me, my hospital gown was on backwards and my enlarged member just sat there for all to witness. "Thank you for letting me see you," smiled the nurse.
Why was I doped up, applied to that study? Because I had been in another study, which had filled my bloodstream with an SSRI. I had been sat down, next to a criminal, and we had been intravenously administered either that drug or a placebo. I didn't get the placebo. I got the SSRI. In massive doses.
So, I got to see what SSRIs do to you when over-administered. I got to sense what they were all about, basically. How they made you feel void, dense and numb. They didn't really address the depression/optimism circuits. They just masked them, and so they daunted the reporting of depression - not depression itself. What happened to me was really, really bizarre.
But, as I said, I was also administered, later, SSRI in low doses, for CFS. And, as I said, they did nothing positive for me. And, beyond that, I studied them in the news and journals, when I had the cogency to do so. I looked at the cases of aggressive and suicidal incidents seen in people taking SSRIs, etc. I came to the conclusion that, in most cases, SSRIs sucked. Doctors were prescribing them for money and convenience. Under the impression that they were balancing out a serotonin imbalance in the brain.
I have posted in this journal of my disdain for SSRIs. And I have questioned the premise of chemical imbalance in the first place, having also studied the brain. A new study has come out, supporting the idea that there is no such chemical imbalance. And, therefore, SSRIs have been used irresponsibly, in many if not most cases, as a means of treating depression/anxiety. Yes, this post right here is an, "I told you so," post. Coming from a Psych major, who has been to hell and back.
And, by the way, it's not like I haven't experienced actual depression in my life, as well. I know what it is, I know it is real, and I truly sympathise with people who suffer from depression and/or anxiety. And, I do not say that SSRIs do not fail in all cases. SSRIs may certainly help in some, or even many, cases, but not in the way we assume they do. They may work in an ancillary way, in some cases. But if doctors assume that their blithe prescriptions will be directly restoring serotonin levels to a proper balance, over time, they are mistaken. INDIRECT LINKS:
Study finds that 'chemical imbalance' in depression is a myth
No evidence that depression is caused by low serotonin levels
In people who experience depression, there may not be something “wrong” or “imbalanced” in their brains, but an SSRI could still interact with these circuits.
FROM THE ABSTRACT:
We aimed to synthesise and evaluate evidence on whether depression is associated with lowered serotonin concentration or activity in a systematic umbrella review of the principal relevant areas of research. PubMed, EMBASE and PsycINFO were searched using terms appropriate to each area of research, from their inception until December 2020....
The main areas of serotonin research provide no consistent evidence of there being an association between serotonin and depression, and no support for the hypothesis that depression is caused by lowered serotonin activity or concentrations. Some evidence was consistent with the possibility that long-term antidepressant use reduces serotonin concentration.
Link to the study in Nature: Molecular Psychology: The serotonin theory of depression: a systematic umbrella review of the evidence
Looking into the processes of neurochemical exchange in the brain, it is dubious that serotonin levels can be artificially changed without internal compensations or readjustments, certainly directly, and certainly over the course of days or weeks. This is not to say that SSRIs cannot work, indirectly, in some cases. I will say that I have watched personalities change for the worse in friends who have been prescribed SSRIs, and these people refuse to see anything deleterious happening to them. They accept numbing as a proactive therapy.
Again, doctors prescribe these drugs for money, convenience, and because they accept the myths of the day. Reports of prescriptions going badly awry are underreported, or attributed to other factors. Other alternatives are available, including benzodiazepines; exercise; synchronisation of circadian rhythms; diet; improvement of gut biota*; cannabis oil; magic mushrooms; Saint Johns Wort; well-measured caffeine; art therapy; production and sales of crafts; hobbies; supportive and productive social bonds; community involvement; religion; reading; scientific enquiry, and cognitive behavioural therapy.
Keys to living a more psychically progressive life include mindfulness, generosity, genuineness, humility, patience, appreciation, self-respect, self-love and the intention to see through bullshit. And removing toxic people from your life is fundamental. Too many people do not see that their depression are responses to the subtle cues being given off to them by abusive narcissists.
* The bottom line is that the stomach brain drives the head brain and not the other way around. Yeast proliferation, e.g., directly influences serotonin activity in the gut and in the brain.
CFS (M.E.), (and similar immune/brain system disorders), was - and continues to be - looked upon as a manifestation of depression (and anxiety), and not a physical illness. Therefore, antidepressants, almost always SSRIs, are prescribed. This is an easy way for doctors to get rid of these conundrum patients who just seem to complain all the time and never accept responsibility for their own craziness. In fact, when a doctor is found who actually understands that CFS is a real illness, and finally diagnoses the patient legitimately, that patient cannot then go on to petition for disability benefits, primarilly Social Security.
No, a diagnosis of CFS is not enough for that. The patient also has to be diagnosed as having a second illness! And that second illness is usually depression. And that's what I had to do. I had to say I was also severely depressed, in order for the government to conclude I was disabled with CFS. If that makes any sense to you.
But, I was not depressed. I was burnt out, and something was eating my brain. And nobody was listening to me. And I was applying for disability when I didn't want to be disabled, and when people were looking at me like I was a pathetic loser. I was angry.
With depression, it might be imagined that a person's psychic lightbulb dims. That is not what happens with CFS. With CFS, one's lightbulb overheats and gets brighter and brighter and just completely burns out. No psychiatric drugs will bring it back. But, since I was officially depressed, I was told to take SSRIs. So, I know about them. And I have studied them. In fact, I studied them in college, even before I came down with CFS.
But, when CFS was ravishing my being, after college but before I ever got to the point of applying for SS/SSI, and when all I got was scorn and antsy impatience, CFS - I didn't know it was CFS - forced me to leave my job. I ran out of money. I became homeless. I lived in a cave in the middle of Philly, surrounded by hypodermic needles. I lost the use of my legs for a bit. I was literally up shit creek. What the hell was happening to me?!
Despite the handicap, I started gaining the means to at least go to research studies, to make any kind of money I could. I even went to one study, where they took blood samples, including of my immune profile, and I didn't even let them know that under my pant leg, my leg had strangely balloooned up with severe poison ivy. In another study, to which I applied, I was so doped up that, when the female nurse studied me, my hospital gown was on backwards and my enlarged member just sat there for all to witness. "Thank you for letting me see you," smiled the nurse.
Why was I doped up, applied to that study? Because I had been in another study, which had filled my bloodstream with an SSRI. I had been sat down, next to a criminal, and we had been intravenously administered either that drug or a placebo. I didn't get the placebo. I got the SSRI. In massive doses.
So, I got to see what SSRIs do to you when over-administered. I got to sense what they were all about, basically. How they made you feel void, dense and numb. They didn't really address the depression/optimism circuits. They just masked them, and so they daunted the reporting of depression - not depression itself. What happened to me was really, really bizarre.
But, as I said, I was also administered, later, SSRI in low doses, for CFS. And, as I said, they did nothing positive for me. And, beyond that, I studied them in the news and journals, when I had the cogency to do so. I looked at the cases of aggressive and suicidal incidents seen in people taking SSRIs, etc. I came to the conclusion that, in most cases, SSRIs sucked. Doctors were prescribing them for money and convenience. Under the impression that they were balancing out a serotonin imbalance in the brain.
I have posted in this journal of my disdain for SSRIs. And I have questioned the premise of chemical imbalance in the first place, having also studied the brain. A new study has come out, supporting the idea that there is no such chemical imbalance. And, therefore, SSRIs have been used irresponsibly, in many if not most cases, as a means of treating depression/anxiety. Yes, this post right here is an, "I told you so," post. Coming from a Psych major, who has been to hell and back.
And, by the way, it's not like I haven't experienced actual depression in my life, as well. I know what it is, I know it is real, and I truly sympathise with people who suffer from depression and/or anxiety. And, I do not say that SSRIs do not fail in all cases. SSRIs may certainly help in some, or even many, cases, but not in the way we assume they do. They may work in an ancillary way, in some cases. But if doctors assume that their blithe prescriptions will be directly restoring serotonin levels to a proper balance, over time, they are mistaken. INDIRECT LINKS:
Study finds that 'chemical imbalance' in depression is a myth
No evidence that depression is caused by low serotonin levels
In people who experience depression, there may not be something “wrong” or “imbalanced” in their brains, but an SSRI could still interact with these circuits.
FROM THE ABSTRACT:
We aimed to synthesise and evaluate evidence on whether depression is associated with lowered serotonin concentration or activity in a systematic umbrella review of the principal relevant areas of research. PubMed, EMBASE and PsycINFO were searched using terms appropriate to each area of research, from their inception until December 2020....
The main areas of serotonin research provide no consistent evidence of there being an association between serotonin and depression, and no support for the hypothesis that depression is caused by lowered serotonin activity or concentrations. Some evidence was consistent with the possibility that long-term antidepressant use reduces serotonin concentration.
Link to the study in Nature: Molecular Psychology: The serotonin theory of depression: a systematic umbrella review of the evidence
Looking into the processes of neurochemical exchange in the brain, it is dubious that serotonin levels can be artificially changed without internal compensations or readjustments, certainly directly, and certainly over the course of days or weeks. This is not to say that SSRIs cannot work, indirectly, in some cases. I will say that I have watched personalities change for the worse in friends who have been prescribed SSRIs, and these people refuse to see anything deleterious happening to them. They accept numbing as a proactive therapy.
Again, doctors prescribe these drugs for money, convenience, and because they accept the myths of the day. Reports of prescriptions going badly awry are underreported, or attributed to other factors. Other alternatives are available, including benzodiazepines; exercise; synchronisation of circadian rhythms; diet; improvement of gut biota*; cannabis oil; magic mushrooms; Saint Johns Wort; well-measured caffeine; art therapy; production and sales of crafts; hobbies; supportive and productive social bonds; community involvement; religion; reading; scientific enquiry, and cognitive behavioural therapy.
Keys to living a more psychically progressive life include mindfulness, generosity, genuineness, humility, patience, appreciation, self-respect, self-love and the intention to see through bullshit. And removing toxic people from your life is fundamental. Too many people do not see that their depression are responses to the subtle cues being given off to them by abusive narcissists.
* The bottom line is that the stomach brain drives the head brain and not the other way around. Yeast proliferation, e.g., directly influences serotonin activity in the gut and in the brain.